Woman Arrested 9 Years After Vanishing

A Palm Beach Shores woman wanted since 1977 on charges she offered $25,000 to have her husband killed was arrested in Hawaii living under a false identity, authorities said.

Nyna Robinson, who left behind two suicide notes before disappearing in January 1977, was living under the assumed name of a former maid in Kailua, a suburb of Honolulu, authorities said. She had been living there for years and was operating three home-care facilities for elderly women.

On Thursday authorities, armed with a 9-year-old warrant and photographs of the suspect, went to her home and asked her if she was Nyna Robinson.

``Her eyes opened up real wide. Her shoulders sagged a bit. You could see the breath go out of her and she said, `Yes,` `` said James Propotnick, chief deputy U.S. marshal in Honolulu.

Inspector Richard Sheets of the Palm Beach County Sheriff`s Office, who was the lead investigator in the case, said he never believed the two suicide notes left in her car in an oceanside parking lot in Juno Beach on Jan. 18, 1977.

``I never did think she was dead. I never suspected that she walked into the sea like she led everyone to believe,`` he said.

Robinson, 61, and Douglas Romm, 37, of Massachusetts, were arrested Dec. 18, 1976, and charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit first-degree murder. Romm offered to share with Carl Gouveia the $25,000 he was to be given if Gouveia helped murder Charles Robinson, said sheriff`s Capt. Fred Furtado. Gouveia turned out to be an informant for the Sheriff`s Office.

Romm was convicted of both charges and sentenced to two 20-year terms at Avon Park Correctional Institute, Furtado said.

Robinson had plotted to kill her husband because of his $200,000 life insurance policy, Sheets said.

When she failed to appear in court on March 10, 1977, a warrant was issued for her arrest that remained outstanding until she was apprehended last week.

Furtado, who has headed the sheriff`s fugitive warrants division for 10 years, said he was certain Robinson had fled the state.

``There was no evidence she committed suicide,`` he said.

There was no word of Robinson until April, when the Sheriff`s Office received word she was living in Hawaii. Her attorney in Hawaii contacted an agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, who in turn contacted the Sheriff`s Office.

``The attorney wanted to know if the charges were still active on her. . . The attorney said she was tired of running and looking over her shoulder,`` Furtado said.

Nothing came of that contact. But Propotnick got information that led to inquiries about an Amy Swanson, the name Robinson had assumed and the name of Robinson`s former maid in South Florida, Propotnick said.

He gave few details on why he began checking into Robinson`s background, but said he became increasingly curious when it appeared the well-respected woman calling herself Amy Swanson was in fact someone else.

``She didn`t exist. No driver`s license. No nothing. She didn`t exist, yet she had substantial assets. So I said, who the hell is this? So I began checking,`` he said, adding that he`s gotten many calls about the arrest.

Kathy Morimoto, daughter of Robinson`s partner in one of the home-care facilities, said she learned of Robinson`s true identity on a television news show.

``There is still a lot of confusion down here about what is going on,`` she said.

She said Robinson, on occasion, had spoken of her husband.

``All she said was they were divorced and she just left (Florida) because he was in love with someone else,`` she said.

Robinson is being held without bail in the Oahu Community Correctional Center. She waived extradition at a hearing on Friday. Sheriff`s Detective David Walsh is expected to fly to Honolulu and return with the prisoner early next week, Furtado said.

Charles Robinson`s whereabouts were unknown until Tuesday, when Sheets got a phone call from a source who told him Robinson was living in Palm Beach County and working as a security guard.